A quote from pors. Long may he rant.

I quote a friend of mine, a labor organizer, a musician, a man who has a lot to say and says it well. He doesn't think his comments worthy of a DKos diary. I do.

I call this one "Leadersheep."

Here 'tis:

There are huge deficits of REAL leadership everywhere in our society. This is partly by design. For at least three decades the Republican party has been based on demeaning and marginalizing the institutions of government that have traditionally been the institutional domains of political leaders. Corporate owned media either back this trend because conflict sells papers or they're actually intentionally attempting to demean leadership so they can operate more freely and without any organized opposition.

In this and many other ways society just hasn't produced leadership. Where's the JFK? Where's the FDR? Where's the Cesar Chavez? Where's the Martin Luther King? Does anyone on the current stage actually exhibit leadership? The Republicans rubber stamp corporate giveaways by an unelected regime fronted by an obvious immoral moron. The Democrats offer absolutely no effective opposition: only posturing that betrays their constituencies and proves that their sole interest is the same as the GOP - perpetrating their own power at any cost.

Organized labor is at an all time low, assaulted on every front and largely dismissed by the general public by way of decades of disinformation from corporate interests.

The environmental movement hasn't produced a popular leader since the days of John Muir or such questionable advocates as Teddy Roosevelt.

The people that I would follow off a cliff (most of them women) can be counted on one hand; all of them hopelessly obscure and marginalized by the aforementioned corporate media.

I think the time is ripe for a real leader to emerge. People are hungry for someone to lead them across the ramparts, but are equally afraid to simply jump into the breech without that galvanizing, indentifiable leadership. This is a situation that could easily swing either way: a perfect storm that could bring an even worse demagogue than the current crop of corporate criminals to power. Unfortunately, that's the more usual outcome. History is replete with Bismarcks, Hilters, Stalins, Nixons, Reagans and Bushes, whereas Ghandis are in short supply.

I don't necessarily blame the common man. Most people are just tryin' to get by. It's more a measure of the venality of our current poltical instituions and the people who inhabit them.

•  On the one hand

  I could have written this diary around 1990, and in fact I did write a somewhat similar diary probably a few years ago, so to some extent I agree.

  On the other hand, having seen things like the Perot and Nader candidacies and a lot of bits expended on dKos (including current candidate diaries) crying for a "man on a horse" (as the cliche goes) to rescue us and lead us from the wilderness,  my response today is more "just start doin' stuff".

  Ghandi didn't start by mobilizing the Indian nation (in fact  he started in South Africa). MLK didn't start with his speech at the Capitol Mall. Anyone reading this (likely not me though) could be the next Ghandi, MLK or even JFK or FDR. But not by setting out to be that.

  My wife and I do a lot of stuff - none of it is going to affect the lives of any dKos readers because it's all very local and some of it is mostly personal. When you do that, you make some small positive contribution and sometimes others see what you're doing and start doing stuff too, which is how MLK and Ghandi got to where they were.

  Rather than complaining about the lack of leadership, do more of the stuff you already do or start doing something new. You don't have to organize, lead marches, win elections - you can just start planting trees or something equally mundane and local, living as if you actually believed in your ideology, and for some, quit whining about how bad the GOP/Democrats/fundamentalists/US/capitalists/et al are and start doing stuff you believe in, regardless of how small. If you have a talent for the really big stuff (I don't), then do that. But do something. This isn't a spectator sport.

  by badger on Fri Nov 23, 2007 at 01:12:37 PM PDT

•  Already bein' done, Badger.

  Been doin' it for years. I've planted thousands of trees. Walked the streets with political fliers, knockin' on doors. Stuck up yard signs. Written letters to the editor. Donated money. Worked with kids to ensure they understand the nature of a civilized society, etc.

  Now I'm adding to it by posting Pors' rants.

  And in this one he's pointing out that there are none in the public eye that are entirely credible or worthy of our trust. He's right.

  by John West on Fri Nov 23, 2007 at 03:00:36 PM PDT